Will Video Advertising in India Get Its Due Share?
With new regulations from the Telecom Authority of India, brands can consider these three online video ad opportunities.
The Indian television industry has come under TRAI’s (Telecom Regulation Authority of India) scanner. Effective October 1, all TV channels will be restricted to air only 12 minutes of advertisements and promotional content per hour. This regulatory move has drawn stringent criticism from most TV broadcasters. The Internet advertising industry would embrace this as a welcome move.
What are some of the video alternatives advertisers and broadcasters can look at to continue grabbing eyeballs and create an equivalent impact/reach as available on television in India?
1. Interstitial video advertising via Mobile TV. Mobile TV is booming in India. With 50 million mobile Internet subscribers and approximately 30 million smartphones, the future is bright. Zenga TV, a 360-degree multi-platform player, has approximately 18 million monthly users with 225 million video views per month. Zenga boasts of having 100+ TV channels including Aaj Tak, DD National (News), POGO (Kids), and Zoom (music).
Pepsi advertising on the IPL (Indian Premier League) broadcasted on Zenga TV.
The nexGTv platform has six million downloads and approximately 22 million video views monthly (as of October 12). Vdopia monetizes the entire nexGTv inventory using its proprietary “clickable video ad-unit technology” and complete HTML5 interactivity. It offers 30-second video ads to advertisers.
The cost of advertising on mobile TV is 1/100,000th the fractional cost of TV advertising (industry estimates: Rs.40,000 for 30-second spot on TV and Rs. 0.4 for 30-second spot on mobile TV).
2. Leveraging online video. As per comScore, online video is growing at a 12 percent rate (much slower than the growth of Internet users in India). The video landscape is heavily dominated by YouTube, which has considerable growth (~24 percent).
Traditional advertisers (favoring TV) have already started embracing the YouTube platform – with innovations via the Mast Head (prime inventory on YouTube’s home page) and First Watch. Some statistics that compare YouTube to Indian TV channels:
a. YouTube has 90 percent reach compared to Star Plus amongst urban youth audience.
b. With the new TRAI regulations, television would monetize a maximum of 20 percent of viewing time as opposed to 3 percent for YouTube.
Source: comScore, March 2012, Extended Universe Extrapolation, TV:TAM, March 2012
c. Advertising on YouTube is at a lower CPRP (cost per rating point) compared to news, English movies, and infotainment channels.
Source: comScore, March 2012, Extended Universe Extrapolation, TV:TAM, March 2012
3. Monetizing video content (an alternative for broadcasters and movie producers). Broadcasters and content producers can alternatively monetize video content uploaded online. Since this content is not “live,” the monetization value may be lesser, but still this is a viable alternative, for both broadcasters and advertisers.
Star TV and Sony Entertainment Television (SET) broadcast online.
Times Internet-owned BoxTV.com touched one million users in April, during the broadcasting of IPL cricket matches. BigFlix.com and Hungama.com (online movies) also have a steady viewership.
In what could possibly upset business models of TV advertising, digital video advertising stands to gain. Only time will tell.
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